Virgo Season

♪♪ Virgo season soundtrack: Amy Winehouse at the BBC ♪♪ 

Virgo season = harvest. We are stocking the larders, fixing the barn, counting the cows, and all sorts of other farming analogies. It’s time to reap what we have sown. It’s time to prepare for the changing of the seasons. Alphabetize and color code your records, books, and recipe collections. Take apart anything mechanical that you can get your hands on, clean it, and then put it back together. Make lists…. Lots of lists. Make lists for your lists’ lists. Have good manners. Take your health seriously. Eat fruits and veggies. Floss your teeth. Edit, organize, and streamline everything. Don’t let your mind run away with you!

Virgo is an earthy, changeable, feminine sign ruled by the planet Mercury. Virgo is where we prepare as best we can for a coming season that we cannot predict. It is about taking stock of what we have created and organizing it in a way that will be most useful. Mercury is a flighty planet. We see depictions of Hermes in winged shoes. He is the messenger god, known for speed and the ability to change course at a moment’s notice. The signs under his rule are places of great intelligence, wit, and mental agility. In Virgo, we often find those qualities manifesting through detailed work performed by the physical body. This sign is top notch when it comes to taking things apart and putting them back together in a more efficient manner. 

Sign: Virgo (August 22-September 22)

Symbol: the virgin

In Greek mythology: Virgo is related to the Myth of Persephone, the goddess of spring. Hades, the lord of the underworld chose her to be his bride. He stole the young goddess away to his home and would not allow her to leave. This sent her mother, Demeter, goddess of agriculture and fertility, into a deep depression. With Persephone trapped in the underworld, the eternal spring that the Earth had known until that time was no longer. Her mother was so overcome with grief that she encouraged nothing to grow until Persephone was permitted by Zeus to rejoin the world of the living for two thirds of the year. The remaining third, she was required to remain in the underworld with her betrothed. This is the story of the seasons.

Ruled by: Mercury (Hermes/Loki/Anansi/Coyote/Thoth/etc.) trickster, psychopomp, devil’s advocate, magician, messenger, patron of travelers, writers, business people, and thieves, god of marketplaces, counting houses, crossroads, doorways, and all places ‘in between’

Yin/Yang: Yin (passive, receptive, dark, cool, damp)

Modality: mutable/changeable/double-bodied

Element: earth (grounded, material, sensual)

Season: summer/fall

Characteristics/Personality Traits: human, rational, winged, vocal, barren, dual, free, rough-skinned, fastidious, set in shape of justice, industrious, practices handicraft, concerned with body, mystical, good, modest, involved with mysteries, full of care, property managers, faithful, domestic, writers, supported by speeches/calculations, initiates into occult, tactile, detail-oriented, organized, neurotic, sovereign, virtuous, intelligent, problem-solving

Body parts: abdomen, intestines

Famous people with Sun in Virgo: Michael Jackson, Beyonce, Knowles, Freddie Mercury, Amy Winehouse, Bernie Sanders, Stephen King, Liz Greene, Leonard Cohen

Reference: 

Ancient Astrology in Theory and Practice by Demetra George

The Astrology of Fate by Liz Greene